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  • Hey it's me Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. So let's pretend for a second that you're a

  • macaw and you live in the Amazon rainforest. Life is pretty good, you have all

  • the fruit you want, but there's one problem. You don't get all the nutrients that you need

  • out of that fruit. So how do you do that? So to answer that question today

  • I've traveled over four days, most of that being in the Amazon rainforest

  • with an outfit called Rainforest Expeditions, and this is our final boat ride.

  • So we're gonna get in this boat, and we're

  • gonna go up river here at the Tambopata River. Gerson's gonna go with us.

  • He's helping me haul some photo gear. You're getting Smarter Every Day.

  • [ Music ]

  • Gracias Señor.

  • So I'm in a boat full of researchers here at the Tambopata

  • Research Center and we are about to go check out exactly how these macaws

  • handle the nutrient problem.

  • [ Music ]

  • Let's go to the main spot first,

  • and then we see how activity goes in the beginning, OK? (Destin) OK, sounds good.

  • [Music & rainforest bird sounds]

  • So this guy right here is in charge.

  • He hasn't said a word to me since I've been here. He's in the zone. He's got a clipboard,

  • so you know he's legit. Talk now or talk later? - Talk later. [ laugh ]

  • Talk later. Got it. I told ya, he's busy doing science,

  • don't mess with the man. OK so that spot of dirt,

  • right over there is the largest clay lick in the world. Here at the Tambopata Research Center,

  • researchers come from all over just to watch this spot of dirt.

  • Macaws, parrots and other birds come in and they eat the dirt and that gives them the

  • nutrients they need. So today we've brought a high speed camera and we're gonna try to capture the macaws

  • doing this. Should be pretty cool.

  • [ Music ]

  • OK one thing that the birds do

  • that we don't really understand yet is called flashing. It's when a bunch of them pile up on the

  • clay lick and then all of a sudden boom, all of them release at one time. So hopefully

  • I can give this high speed video to the researchers and they can use it.

  • It's a flash.

  • [Music]

  • (Gustavo Martinez) [in Spanish] Here we have the times,

  • and the different sections of the clay lick, the weather and the different species.

  • OK so I'm home now, but I can't stop thinking about why a macaw would eat dirt.

  • Well, between all my scratching of bug bites, I contacted the Schubot Center

  • for exotic bird health at Texas A&M University and spoke with a guy named Dr Don Brightsmith.

  • For the past few decades the theory's been there's toxins in fruit in the jungle

  • and that the birds are eating this clay to neutralize the toxins. But research by

  • Dr Brightsmith suggests that it has more to do with sodium and how rain falls on the continent in South America

  • in general. So if you begin to look at South America you can understand why this happens. On the west

  • side we have the Pacific Ocean on the east side we have the Atlantic Ocean so it makes sense that the

  • evaporation would create rain and create the Amazon rainforest. But, that's not what happens.

  • If you look at a satellite image it's easy to see, but the Andes mountains actually

  • cuts off the moisture before it gets over to the Amazon rainforest.

  • In fact, most of the stuff to the west of the Andes is pure desert. This means that most of the moisture

  • in the Amazon rainforest comes from the Atlantic side of the continent. So as moisture

  • evaporates here in the Atlantic Ocean, it begins to deposit it's minerals as it

  • crosses the continent. And by the time it gets here to eastern Peru most of the minerals

  • have leeched into the soil because it's gone through the hydrological cycle several times.

  • Dr Brightsmith and his team analyzed the clay that the macaws are eating at the Tambopata Research Center

  • and they discovered that there's much higher concentrations of sodium. So there you go.

  • That's why clay licks exist. So I hope you enjoyed the video. I had to spend some time away from

  • the family in order to do it, but I hope it was worth it for you. If you would please consider

  • subscribing and check out the links in the video description below I'd appreciate it. You're getting Smarter Every Day.

  • Have a good one. Don't eat my passport. You can't eat my passport.

  • [ laughs ]

  • Get back in the boat.

  • Why aren't you doing anything? - I don't know what to do.

  • [ laughs ] And that's how we got the high speed camera to the jungle.

  • Right there. I don't have a lens

  • that can reach way over there, so Jeff the high resolution

  • photographer here at Rainforest Expeditions, he let me borrow his

  • 600mm lens, so that's what we're doing. - So I'm looking forward to taking this

  • sound and pitching it down, and turning them into scary parrot monsters.

  • (Destin) [ laughs ] What?!

  • - What, do you think we're recording wildlife for wildlife?

  • So today we're in Peru. It's pretty awesome. We've assembled a team of people

  • who are gonna capture Macchu Piccu in the highest resolution photo that's ever been made of it.

  • Got a special panoramic robotic camera mount.

  • We've got all kinds of cool stuff.

  • [Music]

  • [ Captions by Andrew Jackson ] captionsbyandrew.wordpress.com

  • Captioning in different languages welcome. Please contact Destin if you can help.

Hey it's me Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. So let's pretend for a second that you're a

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